Once Asleep, Twice Awake
by Cad The Unspeakable
Summary: The chronicles of the world after Marche's departure and, later, his return. Ivalice through the eyes of the clan that rose to the top, only to be abandoned by it's leader...Mild Language.


I wrote this because I felt I needed to write again some time or other. I've recently been playing a lot of FFTA, since I work a fairly cushy job and have lots of time to play my GBA whilest working. The characters in this are all the characters I acquired and trained over the course of the game; the goings on all take place after the official end of the game, assuming Marche, Mewt, Cid, and Ritz all go back to the real world and the alternate Ivalice remains behind.

I took the lazy way out and simply described most of the characters by their class and race. Also, if the format offendeth thine eyes, be patient; it'll change soon, I'm not entirely familiar with the workings of this site yet. That being said, enjoy (or don't) the show.

Edit (07-12-05): No matter how many times I re-read, correct, and re-upload, I continue to get missing spaces and silly mispellings popping up all through the fic. I promise you I've edited this thing into the darkest corners of the press room and back. If you see anything that looks like a typo (particularly missing words/spaces), please be aware this is likely not my doing.

Oh yeah, Final Fantasy belongs to Square-Enix. All this content are belong to them.

Once Asleep, Twice Awake

Chapter 1 - "Mascot"

The sound of water flowing over what might have at some point been grasslands only added to the impression that Ozmonfield was a peaceful place. The sky, having chosen to remain blue for the time being, also contributed to the illusion; the grass, vibrant and green, swaying in time with a pleasant breeze, wasn't exactly doing it's part in facing up to the spot's true nature itself. Sitting there, that warm, sunny afternoon, it could almost be thought that Ozmonfield was a fairly nice place to settle down.

As luck would have it, there was no where else for the small band to settle down at the current time.

Above the makeshift river loomed a low blue hill, crowned by an old oak who's boughs more or less kept the whole thing in shade all day long. A riot of pink and blue flowers, the sort that thrive in the shade, were pressed against it's south face, and it was amidst these, their backs to the river, that two viera and a moogle took their rest. They sat there in what would have been silence, but for the sounds. None of them looked particularly happy; none of them looked sad. After the sun had fallen a little westward and the shadow upon and within which they sat had stretched a little westward, the moogle ventured to break the quiet.

"I'm scared, kupo."

One of the viera nodded, her as dressed in green robes and wore the horn of a summoner. The other smiled grimy, and pulled at her tabard. She rose to her feet, and in one expert motion drew her epee and buried it halfway to the hilt in the ground.

"There's no reason for us to be scared, Leroy," the standing viera chided the moogle. "We're not on the warpath, exactly. Clan Nutsy hasn't been seen in this place since Marche left, and I doubt if they're going to show up at all." Though her words were spoken with surety, there was something to her manner that was less than convincing.

"Shanon's probably right," the other viera consoled, "but that doesn't mean you're wrong, either. Chibot's been gone a long time, at least for him." At the mention of Chibot, the air grew still once more. Their leader had become something of a hot topic, and everyone in the clan had learned that to linger on discussion on the topic of Chibot was to court disaster. All the same, this didn't stop it from happening. A few more moments passed before Shanon took the bait.

"You know as well as I do that even if Clan Nutsy did show up, they'd turn tail and flee once they saw the Oathbreaker. With Marche gone, no _human_ could hold a sword to that monster."

"Why do you have to call him that," the other viera shouted, standing up. "Who cares if he broke some stupid vow? He's our leader now, and as long as he's our leader we should try to show him some respect!" Her face flushing, she sat back down. Leroy let out a quiet, nervous 'kupo'.

"Respect him, Mareen? Respect him? The man LURED enemy clans into the Jagds, and for what? 'I don't like killing the same man twice', he says. We're supposed to respect a man who took the sacred oath of the Paladin, and no sooner had he mastered the most sacred art of the White Brotherhood than he was wearing The Black!"

For a moment, Mareen stared with dewy eyes at Shanon. In her brief outburst, Shanon had unconsciously unearthed her epee and leveled it at the sitting viera. When she realized what had happened, the fencer slowly lowered the point of her sword, so as not to seem ashamed of her lack of self control. Hers was the way of honor, of the duel. It was beyond Shanon's capacity to step down from this subject; Chibot was the type who's favorite face was a man's back.

"Look, I'm sorry, Mareen. He's not always bad, but you don't have to stand up for him. You are Viera! No human deserves more than passing respect from us. We are the chosen of the spirits."

"I know, but...he's a nice man, to us. And look at how well he treats Lotte..." Mareen realized her mistake after she had already finished saying the words. Shanon clenched her fist, but caught herself before she exploded this time.

"Look, Mareen, could you just be a LITTLE more careful? I would be a lot happier if you'd just not mention Chibot, or that whore Lotte..." She stomped several steps away, then turned around. "And I could live a happy life without hearing any more of Skimble and Ramses than I need to, either."

"But then...why do you stay, kupo?" Leroy had a confused look to his tiny face. The irate viera couldn't help but crack a grin. The moogle looked so disarming, dressed from head to toe in steel like a knight, with a tiny sword at his side, looking ready to take the whole of the world, yet that innocent, confused moogle face remained the same.

"I've got you here, for one," Shanon said calmly, sitting next to him and putting her hand on his head. She looked over at Mareen, and her trademark grim smile came back. "And family is family, even if you are a momo..." Though the words were spoken harshly, Mareen smiled. "And besides, Marche might come back...and if he wants us all back, I want to be there. I wanted to stay with him when he let the Chibot faction go, but he asked me to come, to look over all the others..." Now it was Shanon's turn to get teary-eyed. She could still remember the day Marche sent them on their separate ways. That day, she had seen such a sadness in Marche, trumped only by Chibot's fury.

Shanon was drawn out of her thoughts before she could get too deep by Leroy. He was tugging her hand, pointing eastward. Running towards them, dressed in leather shorts and shirt with a tabard over all, much like Shanon, was another viera.

"Mareen! Shanon! They won, they won!"

Standing now, Mareen ventured a smile and began walking around the hill in a slow spiral downward, and the other two followed suit. By the time they were halfway down the newcomer had reached the bottom of the hill, albeit out of breath. The three stood in the fringes of the tree's shade; the lone viera stood in the stun, her hand shielding her eyes.

"They did it, guys! Chibot and them took the field!" Allowing herself a single, excited jump, she rushed in to join the other three in the shade. A moment passed before Mareen spearheaded the motion to head back up the hill, to the flowers that had until recently been their seat.

"That's great, Kupo, but who did they beat? Meryl, Kupo...did Clan Nutsy show up?" Leroy was fairly soft-spoken and had a high pitched voice even amongst moogles. With the taint of fear, it was nigh unto a cat's mewling.

"No, not Nutsy," Meryl reported, sounding almost disappointed. "It was Hounds. But we beat them! Clan Unsavoury, all the way!" Meryl ran circles around the other three as the group made their way up the hill. She sang praise to the glory of Chibot's swords, reciting details of Skimble's masterful use of the feral magics, ranting about the inestimable Ramses and his fantastic illusions. Though Meryl had only been with them a short time, the other's had gotten used to her youthful exuberance. And, until now, they had tolerated it. Shanon's volatile temper was sparked by Meryl's antics, and she didn't give anyone any time to react. She grabbed Meryl by her tabard's collar on her fifth pass and threw her to the ground.

"How can you be happy, you little twit!" Shanon was practically screaming. Again, her hand drew her sword unthinkingly. "Here you are, dancing around like a little human child, and all for what? Because three of the most detestable clanners in the history of Ivalice beat off some two-gil thugs? What is the matter with you?" Shanon had crept forward until she was looking straight down into Meryl's face. Mareen and Leroy were speechless; Meryl didn't know whether to scream back or cry. A moment later Shanon continued, this time in a composed voice. There was venom in her tone now, and where there had been fire before there was only ice. She even took the time to sneer.

"You're just the mascot, you know," the aggressor spat. "Just like Lana was before you, and Nora before her...I can't even remember all their names. Every time a new viera comes along, looking to join, Chibot gives the last one her walking papers, and the new one...well, they're prancing up and down, praising the stars that they were accepted into the great Clan Unsavoury, just like you were a couple weeks ago." A sound that might have been a kupo or a shattered sob came from the moogle's throat. Mareen turned red.

"Th...that's not true, is it, Mareen?" Meryl skittered back, away from Shanon, and looked to Mareen for support. The summoner turned her eyes away before she could meet her gaze. "Leroy?" she barely whispered. The moogle's eyes were wet.

"Kupo...I'm...kupopo..."

"Don't believe a word of that, Meryl," a voice stated resolutely from behind them. Shanon bristled up immediately; the rest turned to face the source. Leaning against the tree, a smile on his face, was their leader, Chibot. He wore the loose, conservative black shrouds of a ninja, though he bore no turban or mask for his face. His cape was stark white; the very same he wore in his days as a paladin. Across his back hung his signature sword, 'Save The Queen', and at his side was a long, thin sword, forged in the eastern style. He was very much the model of confidence and youthful charm, save for the thin white scar running down his face on the left side, from his temple to the corner of his mouth. "You came to me, asking to join Clan Unsavoury, to help bring us towards that brightest of bright futures. I took you into this clan, picked you up out of that chaos and jockeying for power that is the lesser clans. Will you think me a liar, a brigand...do you expect me to break my word?"

"Wouldn't be the first time," Shanon muttered. Skimble shot her a hard glance for just a moment, then let himself smile again.

"Look, calm down...there, that's a girl, stand up now...good, now brush off that dirt. Look, why don't you go back to camp? I think Ramses could use some help; by some odd chance, one of the Hound guys we beat had one of those things he's always talking about...the zodiac stones, or whatever it is they were. Or if that sage stuff isn't your style, why not head to Materiwood? Homer and Wilfred are hunting, and you know those two, they can always use some help. You're Unsavoury now, you know, you should be helping us with this." Chibot took a parental tone, and spoke as if scolding a child who had said something inappropriate at the dinner table. He seized Meryl by the hand and began leading her away from the tree, talking all the while. "Or maybe Ford and Cooper could use some help with that cougar we caught two days ago..."

Shanon watched the scene with mixed amazement and disgust. In the course of a minute the girl had gone from looking ready to end it all to smiling cheerily and walking alongside the very same beast who'd be sending her on her lonesome way sometime soon. For their part, Mareen and Leroy seemed glad the whole thing was over.

"How does it happen," Shanon mused. "How did we go from sitting here enjoying a bit of peace to screaming, and back...in a few minutes?" Again, rationality decended on her like a hammer blow, and she realized she had just come within inches of shattering all the hopes and dreams of an innocent, if not ignorant, young viera girl.

"Why does it always have to be like this?"

She got no answer.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The streets were deserted, and the windows were empty. Buildings left to waste away years ago bore ominously down on the two as they walked along the road.A single street-light flickered as they walked beneath it, as if it had simply forgotten to go out, even after all these years. The sky was blue this day, too, but it was the deep cobalt that hinted of impending night, and the calls of the nocturnal birds made clear that the little remaininglight would not be long in departing.

"Why did we come here?" Meryl asked nervously. Her companion, a thin young man dressed all in blue, a great plume rising from the center of his hat, laughed jovially at her concern.

"Why, dear Meryl? Isn't it obvious? We're on a dispatch mission, of course." The blue magewalked along undaunted, passing under the flickering street lamp and kicking at a broken crate that lay in the road. He began whistling a tune to drive home his image of indomitable mirth.

"Don't we usually...send one person out for that?" The viera fencer shivered; the Jagds always seemed cold, even in the summer months. The cold would not leave them. "I mean, before I even joined I heard stories of 'Skimble the Conqueror', who claimed territories singlehandedly, who killed the Jagdsaurus on his own, while four men stood by and watched..." Before she could finish, Skimble had put his hand on her face and turned her head to look at his. She turned red; Skimble had a very fair face, being still very young, with an almost effeminate quality to it. Meryl didn't know him very well, but she didn't complain. It was something about his eyes.

"Meryl...since the moment I saw you ask Chibot to join..." Skimble's voice was normally very smooth and fluid. Now there was something to it; anticipation, and something else. The viera gave a slight cry as he drew her up against him, tightly wrapping his arms around her. When he spoke again, it was a whisper."There's been something I've wanted to tell you, since I first saw you."

"Skimble..." Thoughts raced through her head even as all the blood in her body clammored up her veins to fight for a spot in it. Skimble had always seemed so distant, so unatainable; something you saw, but didn't touch. And here he was, holding her to him...

"Goodbye, Meryl." The blue mage's words had again that jovial, careless sound to them. Before she knew what he had meant, she felt his skin grow warm, then hot. In a moment's time, she felt as if she were aflame. The whole event took a moment to catch up with Meryl's brain. Somewhere, she was still waiting to hear him confess his love, or something, anything. But not 'goodbye'. Meryl tried to push away from him, but his grip would not break.

"Please, no!" Meryl began sobbing, thrashing desperately. Everything hit her all at once; she became painfully aware of what Skimble meant in saying 'goodbye'. She had seen him do this before; more accurately, she had seen a Bomb do it to him. "Please...SKIMBLE!"

There was no one around to hear the deafening roar of the explosion. No one heard the viera's final desperate cry. And no one saw the blue mage flicker with a soft white light, pull himself to his feet, and stroll out of Jagd Dorsa in the dark, unmolested, whistling a cheery tune.


End file.
